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This one is so logical and makes so much sense- it is a no brainer. A new trial in England will inject the heart attack patient's own stem cells into his/her heart within 4 hours of having their heart attack. The goal is for the stem cells to go into the heart and help repair and limit the damage done by the heart attack-
Current treatments to unblock arteries immediately after a heart attack help reduce deaths from acute attacks, but the approach doesn't address the damage that has happened to heart tissue, and this can lead to heart failure later on, explained Prof Martin."Even though you open up the artery, there has been damage to the heart already," he said. "Our objective is to stop that damage happening and repair the little damage that has occurred by putting the stem cells down the artery as soon after the attack as possible, so they are going to the heart and they tell it how to repair itself."
The trial, which started in April, looks at the impact of taking stem cells from a patient's own bone marrow sample to deliver a "rescue force" to the heart. "When you come into my hospital in an ambulance and the diagnosis is made of heart attack, you will be asked if you want to enter our trial," said Prof Martin. "We believe if we can get the cells in early we can stop the damage. So we try to get them in within four hours."
Half of the 100 patients in the double-blind trial, funded by the UK Stem Cell Foundation and private donations, have their own stem cells delivered to their heart and the other half get water. Then they get follow-up tests on heart function and quality of life, he explained.Stem cells can reduce heart-attack damage by one-third in animal models, although scientists are not sure how it works, he said. "I have been very much criticised by other scientists saying I shouldn't do this until I know what is happening. I say it's so complicated we might never know how it works."
I have no doubt you are being criticized. Criticized by scientists who would rather watch heart attack victims suffer from congestive heart failure than to possibly be helped by adult stem cells. Since this trial uses stem cells from the heart attack victim, they are his/her own cells so there are no side effects- there is no downside to this. And the best possible scenario is the stem cell treatment will help (which will surely be the case).
This trial will take two years to complete and then undoubtedly more trials will be called for- think of how many heart attack victims could be helped in this time span. However, taking a glass is half full approach, at least this is a step in the right direction.
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